A council trip to Italy has discovered “opportunities” in Belgium, China and Spain, according to a City Hall statement.
Designers from Geelong could attend industry activities in each of the countries only because council had joined an international network of “creative cities”, according to a report on the Italy trip.
Council spent $6446 sending Mayor Bruce Harwood and economic development and events manager Tim Ellis to Italy for the annual general meeting of UNESCO Creative Cities.
Attending the meeting was an “obligation” of joining the 180-member international network, City Hall said.
Previous state-appointed administrators signed council up to the network in 2017 as part of their “clever and creative” vision for Geelong. The network later assigned Geelong to a City of Design sub-grouping.
The network annual meeting was the second for Geelong’s council, with Cr Harwood and another City Hall manager travelling to Poland on an $18,000 journey last year.
Cr Harwood and Mr Ellis’s 2019 meeting report was tabled at council’s meeting this week.
Cr Harwood addressed a gathering of 60 mayors and Mr Eillis gave a “keynote presentation”, said City Hall.
Mr Ellis’s presentation was “well-received, with positive feedback from delegates.”
Cr Harwood and Mr Ellis also “held discussions” with representatives of Helsinki, Kobe and Wuhan about visiting Geelong, City Hall said.
The pair was also able to “cement relationships” with Dundee, Kortrijk, Kolding, Cape Town, Montreal, Nagoya and Singapore.
City Hall identified the “potential opportunities” for local designers as a three-month residency in Belgium, participation in China’s Shenzen Design Week, and attending a workshop in Spain’s Bilbao.
“These have been communicated to local stakeholders and interested parties,” City Hall said.
Cr Harwood also nominated Geelong to host a “Cities of Design sub-network meeting” in 20121.
“Our attendance at this event put Geelong on the world stage, raising our city’s international profile and helping us develop connections that will benefit the city, local businesses and our community in the long term,” Cr Harwood said..
“We used the trip to strongly promote Geelong as the ideal host for the 2021 Cities of Design sub-network meeting. Hosting this event would bring those international cities here, giving us a chance to showcase Geelong in person.
“Our pitch was well-received and we’ll now continue those discussions to give us the best chance of winning the competitive bidding process.”
A council watchdog has slammed the UNESCO network trips and other council overseas travel as junkets.
“The community at large” was against council international travel for council, said Geelong Ratepayers’ Andrew Senia.
“No amount of public relations can justify them,” he told the Geelong Indy earlier this year.
“The measure is in the result and so far there is no evidence of anything tangible. They must stop.”
